President Donald Trump is making clear that he will deploy the U.S. Military only if there is an economic benefit to the United States. In a cabinet meeting that was open to reporters Wednesday afternoon, Trump suggested any humanitarian reason for the U.S. to defend the Kurds in Syria is far outweighed by the fact there’s no economic benefit to America to be there.

“It’s sand and it’s death,” Trump said of Syria, a nation embroiled in one of the largest and deadliest civil wars and humanitarian crises in all of history.

He gave no indication of caring that approximately half a million people have died in the nearly eight years of war in Syria, or that more than 5 million people have become refugees as a result of the war.

Instead, Trump cares only about any potential economic benefits, and sees none.

In a nearly two-minute diatribe, the President told reporters that “Syria was lost long ago. It was lost long ago. And besides that, I don’t want – we’re talking about sand and death. That’s what we’re talking about,” Trump said.

“We’re not talking about vast wealth. We’re talking about sand and death.”

Calling the President’s remarks “utterly incoherent,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes echoed the remarks of many on social media upon hearing Trump discuss how U.S. Military forces should be used – basically for blood and treasure – and his total lack of understanding of what is happening in the region.

This entire thing is just utterly incoherent. A series of synapses firing with little nuggets of both real and invented knowledge with absolutely no framework or structure. https://t.co/yj9kzFozpr

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) received telephone calls from the President of the United States, who “personally pressed” them to make the malaria drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine available.

“Rarely, if ever, has a U.S. president lobbied regulators and health officials to focus their efforts on specific unproven drugs,” Reuters reveals in its exclusive report. “Shortly afterward, the federal government published highly unusual guidance informing doctors they had the option to prescribe the drugs, with key dosing information based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.”

His calls launched a “cascade of federal action.”

Trump’s focus came after a Fox News interview in mid-March of a a lawyer the conservative cable network said was associated with a small French study, who said “we have strong reason to believe that a preventative dose of hydroxychloroquine is going to prevent the virus from attaching to the body and just get rid of it completely.”

Two days later, that same attorney, appears on Fox News again, declaring, the president “has the authority to authorize the use of hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus immediately.”

Just one day later Trump began his campaign to promote the malaria drugs, despite only anecdotal evidence and that one small French study.

“On March 19, Trump vowed to make the drugs more widely available. ‘It’s shown very encouraging – very, very encouraging early results,’ he said at a press conference. ‘And we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They – they’ve gone through the approval process; it’s been approved. And they did it – they took it down from many, many months to immediate.’

The drugs had not, in fact gone through the FDA’s “approval process” to treat coronavirus, nor had they been approved by the FDA to do so.

“Now, millions of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine pills are on their way to the public, donated by drugmakers, including Novartis’ Sandoz, Bayer and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The FDA issued an emergency authorization on March 28 allowing them to be prescribed and distributed from the Strategic National Stockpile.”

Bernie Sanders Reverses – Announces He Will Not Release His Full Medical Records Even After Heart Attack

‘I Don’t Think We Will’

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, has announced he will not be releasing his full medical records after suffering a heart attack late last year. Sanders, 78, is currently seen as the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

“We have released, I think, quite as much as any other candidate has,” Sen. Sanders said, defending his decision to reverse his promise of releasing a full set of medical records just after his October heart attack.

But in October, after the heart attack, Sanders said releasing his medical records was “the right thing to do.” He also had promised to release them “before the first votes are cast,” a deadline he’s missed.

“People do have a right to know about the health of a senator and someone running for president,” Sanders told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta on October 10. “At the appropriate time we’ll make all the medical records public for you or anyone else who wants to see them.”

Here’s Sanders just after his heart attack promising to release his full medical records:

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “We’ll release them, we always planned to release them. And we have more medical records obviously now, and we will release them at the appropriate time.” pic.twitter.com/X8b0bWvnPc

“We released two rather detailed letters from cardiologists and we released a letter that came from the head of the U.S. Congress medical group, the physicians there. So I think we have released a detailed report, and I’m comfortable with what we have done,” Sanders told Anderson Cooper Tuesday night at a CNN town hall.

“If you think I’m not in good health come on out with me on the campaign trail and I’ll let you introduce me to the three or four rallies a day that we do,” Sanders joked.

Cooper pressed the three-term Senator if he would be releasing his full medical records in the future.

“I don’t think we will, no,” Sanders responded.

President Donald Trump was largely decried and mocked for his refusal to release his full medical records when he was running in 2016. He has never released a full set, and his White House physician’s reports have been largely received as fictive.

It’s much worse than Trumpish. Other than his weight we had no reason to think Trump was ill during the 2016 campaign. Sanders is almost 80 and just had a heart attack. It’s INSANE for the public not to get some concrete information about his health.

“Fox & Friends” Monday morning defended President Donald Trump’s false claim that the Kansas City Chiefs were from the state of Kansas. The NFL team who won Sunday night’s Super Bowl are from the state of Missouri. Trump quickly deleted a tweet Sunday night praising the team for “a great game, and a fantastic comeback.”

“You represented the Great State of Kansas,” Trump said, “so very well.”

The Fox News morning crew agreed, despite the confines of geography and cartography.

“Kansas City is in Kansas and it is also in Missouri,” co-host Steve Doocy told Fox News viewers – glossing over that Trump specifically – and falsely – said the Kansas city Chiefs “represented the Great State of Kansas.”

“It’s like the difference between the New York Giants, I mean the Giants are – people call them the NY Giants but they’re in New Jersey,” Doocy concluded, except it’s nothing like that at all.

“Right, right,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt chimed in.

Watch:

Steve Doocy defends Trump’s tweet congratulating Kansas for the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl: “Kansas City is in Kansas and it is also in Missouri. … [It’s like when] people call them the New York Giants, but they’re in New Jersey.” pic.twitter.com/tQFd5KlTy8